(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch display device for a vehicle and a driving method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Recently, various input devices, such as a keypad, a jog dial, and a touch screen, have been proposed as input commands for various functions of a vehicle. Among the input devices, the touch screen is operated in a more simplified manner than the keypad or the jog dial and therefore has been applied to an audio-video-navigation (AVN) system or a cluster of a vehicle.
In general, the touch screen is implemented as a plane design (e.g., a flat or non-curved design) and therefore is difficult to apply the touch screen to a curved design within a vehicle. Further, there is a need to change a design of a display module based on the interior design of the vehicle, thereby leading to an increase in costs. Therefore, an imaging device based touch display device, which may be installed on any curved surface within the vehicle, display vehicle information on a screen, and recognize a touch of a user, has been developed. The imaging device based touch display device is disposed in a back direction of the touch screen and includes a projector that outputs an image to the touch screen, a lighting unit that radiates infrared rays, and an imaging device that captures an image when the infrared rays are reflected.
According to the touch display device, when a user touches any position on the touch screen, the infrared rays radiated from the lighting unit are reflected by the user's hand. The imaging device acquires the image on the touch screen by receiving the reflected infrared rays through an infrared filter and recognizes the touch of the user based on the acquired image.
The above information disclosed in this section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.